We’re baaaaaaack!  The trip to Texas was wonderful.  We arrived in Houston on Friday, drove to our friends’ house and spent the rest of Friday being pampered with great food, drink and conversation.  Things actually cooled down a bit for us, but we mostly stayed inside anyway.  We left at the crack of dawn on Sunday to go to my stepson’s white coat ceremony.  We underestimated just how many people wanted to be part of this so we wound up in overflow seating, but they were great about letting the family come in while their loved one was actually being “coated” to take pictures.  The speeches weren’t too boring and it was an emotional day for us all.  One of my medical school classmates just recently became the Chancellor for the entire University of Texas system and he was at the ceremony.  It was nice to be able to introduce my stepson and entrust his education to a friend.  We had good Texas barbecue for lunch and then Mexican food for dinner with the family.  Sunday we headed North.  We had lunch with my husband’s aunt and then landed on a friend’s doorstep in Dallas for more good food, drink and conversation.  We slept in Tuesday then split up and I had lunch with my friend while my husband knocked around on his own.  Tuesday evening we met old friends from the SMU chemistry faculty at Celebration for our traditional Dallas confab.  Coming home yesterday presented no problems and I used the rest of the afternoon to rest and recuperate.  I was back at work first thing this morning and am looking forward to my last clinical shift tomorrow with a very busy schedule.

As far as cancer goes, I’ve tried experimenting the last few days and taking oxycodone whenever I feel any kind of not good - pain or nausea or extra weak or whatever - and it seems to be working.  I’ve determined that my inability to stand or walk for any significant period of time is actually due to low back pain which pretty quickly brings its friends nausea and lightheadedness into play.  Even when my pain is completely controlled at rest or sitting, standing and walking trigger it like crazy.  I’ve been keeping track and will talk to my oncologist and Hospice next week about where to go with pain management so we can get rid of the ups and downs and try to keep things on a more even keel.  My appetite is still decent, I haven’t lost any weight, I’m getting enough sleep and I’m not drowsy or sleepy during the day.  So things are pretty good!

Until the National Free to Breathe Walk is past (November) I’m going to end each email with a reminder to contribute to the lung cancer cause in my name if you are able and the link to the Team Sunnyside fundraising page - so here it is:

http://participate.freetobreathe.org/site/TR/RunWalk/General?team_id=1950&pg=team&fr_id=1139

Next update after I see the oncologist next week.

Lisa